One shot-kill weapons

There are 6 weapons which can kill a ship of the same mass that launched them
in one shot:

Missiles, Submunitions, Scatterpacks, Torpedo Fighters, Nova Cannon and Wave
Guns.

Lets go over the damage/ship(damage points mass ratio:
Missiles: 7 damage/4(2) mass.  Missiles can kill a
ship 3.5 times as massive as the one that launched it.

Submunitions: (2/ 1.3 / .7 )Damage per 2(1) mass.
Submunition can kill a ship twice as massive as itself if it get off all its
shots within 6", and it can kill a ship 33% larger if it gets off all its
shots with 12".

Scatterpacks: 3.5/ 2 (1) Mass within 12".  Like missiles,
Scatterpacks can expect to kill a ship 3.5 times as massive.

Torpedo Fighters: 21/ 12 (6) mass, or 3.5 times as
massive.

For ease of comparison, all these weapons ignore shields. There is no defense
at all versus Scatterpacks or Submunitions.

Then we get to the weapons which can kill in one shot but can be used again.

Consider the following two ships classes: Wave Gun Cloaked Cruiser and Sub
Space Bomber

Mass 26   WGCC
Thrust 8 damage 13 sys Cloak Wave Gun

and: Mass 40 Sub Space Bomber Thrust 5 Damage 20 sys Cloak Nova Cannon

At 12" and 24" respectively, each of these ships can kill a ship of the same
mass in one shot.

A beam-equipped Cruiser would inflict 8-9 points at 12"
if they bought no defense. A WGCC would have the greatest
advantage in the 24"-36" range because its weapon damage
is only halved while the beam Cruisers are reduced by two thirds.

A beam-equipped Battlecruiser would inflict 8-9 points
at 24" if everything they had was A Beams.

Lets compare defenses: Versus Scatterpacks and Submunitions, all you can do is
to try to keep out of their arc or their 12" range. How easy this will be
depends on several factors: 1) The relative thrust of the ships involved 2)
Whether you are using standard FT (cinematic) or 'realistic' Vector Thrust
rules.
3)  How fast the ships are going/ how much time they have
to build up a vector before engaging.

Number three depends on such arbitrary things as the size of the table, the
maximum speed allowed, and whether you have optional sensors rules that enable
you to detect the enemy at strategic ranges, or at least greater than maximum
weapons range.

Under standard Swoops in Space rules, the faster a ship is going the greater
the potential area it can dodge to in a single turn.

Lets run down a couple examples for three systems: 1) Standard FT rules 2)
Vector Thrust where one can spend 2 thrust for a 1 point facing change 3)
Vector Thrust where one can execute a facing change
of up to 1/2 the ships' Thrust with no thrust penalty.

Consider a Thrust 2 Dreadnought moving at 30". There are 5 positions it can be
in at the end of a turn:
P1, S1, +0, +1 and +2.  The separation between P1 and 0
is about 8" under (1).

The dodge field consists of 3 hexes under (2) and a triangle of about 6 hexes
under (3)

The difference in the positional variation at the end of the move makes a big
difference in whether missiles and fighter groups can be in range to engage.

A Thrust 8 Escort could generate enough positional sideways thrust to dodge a
missile under (3), but not under (2).

The movement system used and the house rules then play a
key role in determining the effectiveness of the one-shot
short range killers.

Also, a Thrust 2 Battleship is an easy target under (2) and (3) for Wave Guns
and Nova Cannons because its location and course are predictable turns ahead
of time.

My point is not to get people to tone done the oneshot weapons but to provide
an analysis so that everybody has the same information to make decisions based
on.

Also, I am working on some tactics and fleet doctrines for Vector Thrust which
I will post in a couple of days. I have a few solutions to the Wall v Wall
slugging matches that some people dislike. Part of strategy is building a good
fleet, and part is knowing how to use it. If you just don't like having to
roll 6's all the time, have a house rule that you can combine batteries and
say: "The 18 d6 I could roll for damage requiring 6 to hit I am actually going
to roll and 6d6 requiring 4's."

What happens when you replace 4 A Beams with 6 Needle Guns? Is 2 points of
damage versus level3 shields worth an average of killing a system a turn? How
close do your Dreadnoughts get to the enemy Dreadnoughts? One FCS
can fire all the Needle Guns, so 3-6 needle guns on a
Cruiser or Capital ship would really affect the final clash, while still
leaving FCS available for conventional beams.

I'm not sure what some people actually object to about
Wall V Wall combat.  Is it that it takes about 6-8 rounds
for equal sized ships to cripple or destroy each other? In that case, play
with Wave Gun Cruisers and Sub Space Bombers and each hit will take out a
ship. Very quick indeed. Is it that their 2 Thrust ships rely on overwhelming
firepower that you sacrificed in the name of 'fleet flexibility'? Hey, if you
are paying to cover every contingency then you will get hurt. If you spend
1/4 your mass on anti-fighter defenses and your opponent
uses nothing but beams, he will have a firepower edge. Develop your own attack
strategy and force your opponent to make the expensive changes to his ships.